Navigation Pages

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Philippines Day 20: Legazpi - Manila

Of course, we were brought to the airport by our driver for the last days. We had a great time in and around Legazpi thanks to his services, but now it was time to leave for Manila. We had booked a flight with Cebu Pacific at 9.30 a.m., and it took just about one hour to get back to Manila. When we arrived at the domestic airport in Manila, I used the opportunity to change my flight with Philippine Airlines at their airport office. I originally had planned to drive by bus northwards from Manila to visit a cousin in Nueva Ecija but decided against it since I was still feeling sick and now wanted to go earlier to Palawan instead and rest. Unfortunately, I had to wait forever to rebook after pulling my number from the waiting list. It was probably a bad idea because rebooking cost about as much as the original flight. I even had to book my baggage allowance for a second time because the airline already forfeited what I paid on my initial flight. It just defies any logic. It didn't really lift my mood.

What lifted my mood, was eating in the restaurant area of the domestic airport after rebooking the flight. I really like the domestic airport - it's clean, huge and there are many restaurants to choose from. We actually split up - I went to get some Asian food and took my stuff then to my friend, who had ordered pizza.

Then we took a cab to our hotel for the next three nights, conveniently located beside the Manila Bay, the Microtel Mall of Asia, where we already had stayed before going to Legazpi and on our previous visit in the country.

After a short rest, we were picked up by friends (the twin sister of a good friend of mine here in Berlin and her husband) for dinner at the Greenbelt in Makati's financial district. The centre has a small park with palm trees and manicured lawn and of course, shopping and dining areas. It has everything your heart might desire. I was really feeling the heat and was sweating profusely, but at the same time, the area was quite relaxing, and we soon found a nice restaurant and had an excellent dinner. Since my friend was very picky about food, we let him decide which kind he likes. Then we needed to sleep because for the next day we had booked a volcano tour, starting at 8 o'clock in the morning.